Difficult Questions
by xiao32615987
Summary: Aelita enjoys nothing more than discussing life on Earth with Jeremie and today she has some particularly challenging questions. Oneshot, Single scene, completed.


_This was written whilst I was taking a short break and wanted to write a little something from Jeremie's perspecitve. It's a short, single scene set in series one. Please tell me what you think; but keep in mind that I didn't spend much time on it._

* * *

"Good morning Aelita." The boy said; and within a second the pink haired AI called Aelita appeared on the computer screen, she was smiling broadly.

"Good morning Jeremie." Aelita responded; it was always a pleasure to hear her voice, she always seemed happy to see him. Jeremie smiled back at her; though inside he didn't feel like it, he would have to tell her that the materialisation program still wasn't ready. He didn't want to disappoint her.

"How are you today?" He asked, hoping to sound as cheerful as she did.

"Oh, I'm fine thank you." She responded; she was never worried, unless Xana was up to something. "What about you? How's the program going?"

This is exactly what he feared; she wanted good news about it, maybe even that he could materialise her today. "Oh, it's fine. It's not finished yet, but it's not far off." He lied; he couldn't bring himself to tell her that in three months of programming he had made absolutely no progress whatsoever.

"Really?" Her voice sounded disbelieving, but Jeremie could still hear a note of hope in it; he couldn't lie to her.

"No, it's a disaster. Everything I try fails; even when it succeeds I just run into another wall." He couldn't keep from sounding hopeless; he was tired. He had been working most of the night for several days in a row and last night was no exception; he'd only dragged himself out of bed this early so that he could talk to Aelita before breakfast and school. School. To think that he was wasting time in lessons that he could be spending working on materialising Aelita; especially PE lessons with the Neanderthal-like Jim.

Aelita sighed, "I know you can do it Jeremie; it'll take time but you'll figure it out in the end." Jeremie nodded half-heartedly, "And I really appreciate everything you're doing for me."

"I know."

"If you like, later, we can go over it together and see if we can find the solution, huh?" Aelita raised an eyebrow questioningly.

This made Jeremie feel better; the idea that there was a chance of the two of them working it out together filled him with hope, he felt ready to tackle it again. Aelita had also reminded him why he was doing this in the first place; for her, he wanted to help her so much. It didn't matter what anyone else said; Aelita wasn't simply an AI program, she seemed completely human. She was his best friend.

"Yeah, sounds good." He answered her question smiling, though this time he actually felt like it. She beamed back at him and Jeremie felt his stomach squirm; he must be hungry, he naively thought.

"Uh, Jeremie. What day is it?"

"Err…" He had to think for a second, it was an unfortunate side-effect of long nights and going back in time twice a week; it was easy to lose track of time. "…Tuesday." He said, eventually.

"Oh. Well; in that case; I think I'm supposed to tell you… happy birthday? Is that right?"

"That's right Aelita." Jeremie responded and Aelita returned to her normal warm smile, though Jeremie had been taken off-guard. "But how did you know?"

"The others told me, last Xana attack." She explained, "That was… Saturday?"

"Sunday." He corrected her.

The others; of course, Jeremie had never told Aelita about his birthday, it didn't seem important. He didn't think Aelita even knew about birthdays.

"Oh, sorry." Aelita said, bringing Jeremie's mind back to the moment; what was she apologising for? "It's difficult to tell time on Lyoko; there's no night or day and I don't go to sleep." She giggled, "But then again, you don't sleep much either."

It took Jeremie's mind a moment to catch up.

"Well," he said eventually, slightly embarrassed. "I've got to work on your materialisation program haven't I?"

Aelita sighed, "Jeremie," she said, "It won't hurt if I have to wait another day."

"The sooner we materialise you, the sooner we can beat Xana for good." He said defensively; Aelita merely shook her head.

"Jeremie," Aelita said after a long pause, "Is it normal for humans to talk when they're asleep?" Jeremie was puzzled, where had this come from?

"Er… Well, lots of people talk in their sleep; usually if they're having vivid dreams." He paused, he was sure that he had explained dreams to her; had he? "Why do you ask?"

"Well," She responded slowly, "last night I heard you calling my name; so I contacted you, but you were asleep. You were saying my name in your sleep. Were you dreaming?"

Jeremie felt his face burn and he was sure that Aelita noticed from her expression. He had indeed been having dreams. Last night he must have forgotten to close the connection to the supercomputer, so the microphone was still connected and picked up what he said in his sleep. He was too embarrassed at his own stupidity to speak, so he simply nodded instead.

"What was it about?" Aelita inquired; Jeremie saw no way out of this.

"Well…" He spoke slowly; maybe he could get away with being as vague as possible. "It was about you coming to stay with us; you know, after I materialise you."

"I think about that all the time." Aelita admitted dreamily. "We can be together at last as you show me everything there is to see in the real world; we could hold hands and maybe we could even-" She cut herself off abruptly. Aelita wasn't capable of blushing like he was; but Jeremie could still see that she was embarrassed, she wouldn't meet his eyes.

They were in silence for a few minutes; but Jeremie didn't mind, it took the conversation away from his dreams. Though he was intrigued to find out what Aelita thought about, it made his stomach squirm in a way he knew had nothing to do with food.

"So…" Aelita said eventually, looking back at Jeremie again. "What is a birthday?"

"Well, it's a celebration." Jeremie answered eagerly; glad to be back on an innocent topic of conversation. "Every year that someone has been alive, we celebrate that they are another year older."

"Oh, I see. And how old are you?"

"I'm twelve years old now."

"So you're younger than the others?"

"That's right." Jeremie said, a little sheepishly. He had been advanced a year in school due to his intelligence, but he didn't like to mention this.

"And how old am I?"

"Well, that's more difficult to answer." Jeremie said truthfully, he had searched hard but had not found anything to show when Aelita was made. "But, the oldest parts of the supercomputer are just over eleven years old."

"So, we're about the same age?" Aelita said, more as a fact than a question; she seemed pleased about it.

"Yeah." Jeremie responded, though he had never really thought about it like that; what if he materialised her and she turned out to be eight years old?

He was interrupted from his musings as the door burst open and three people shouted 'Happy birthday'. In no time at all Odd, Ulrich and Yumi were around him; Yumi ruffled his hair whilst Odd and Ulrich punched him in the arm before pushing a colourfully wrapped package into his hands. Jeremie pulled of the wrapping paper to reveal a small, hardback book; 'Computer Waiting Games' it was titled. Jeremie couldn't help but laugh.

"It's just in case you get bored whilst you're trying to program Aelita's materialisation." Odd said, "You know how slow computers can be."

"Thanks guys, it's great." Jeremie said, "But my computer's not that slow."

"Besides, he could always talk to me while he's waiting." Chipped in Aelita; though she didn't seem quite as happy as the others.

"I'm sure there are some games you could play together." Added Ulrich.

"Yeah." Yumi interjected, "What do you two talk about all day anyway?" She raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Does it matter?" Jeremie sighed; he certainly didn't wish to share their most recent conversation with the others.

"It does if you're going to be like that about it." Odd jumped in, giving Jeremie a very suspecting look.

"We just work on fighting Xana," Aelita said calmly, "That and Jeremie helps explain the real world to me."

"We thought it would be something like that." Ulrich said, giving Odd a warning look; fortunately, Odd seemed to get the message.

"What happens as humans get older?" Aelita asked; one of her innocent questions which served to remind Jeremie how little she knew about the real world.

"Well, we grow." Jeremie said simply; it was difficult to fully explain it, as were many of the things that Aelita asked. Next to him, Odd rolled his eyes. "We get bigger as we develop and we change."

"You change, but I won't?" Aelita sounded worried.

"Well, not while you're in the supercomputer." Jeremie responded; this was another thing that had never crossed his mind. What if it took him years to materialise her and he ended up much older than her; would they still be best friends?

"That's one reason, I think, to get you out as soon as possible." Yumi said; Odd and Ulrich made general noises of assent. Jeremie appreciated Yumi's comment more than she knew; it showed him that they cared about Aelita too.

"And what do you grow into?" Aelita asked; seemingly untroubled, or at least hiding it very well.

"Well… adults. Just older people." Jeremie answered, though he wasn't sure that he'd done a very good job.

"Like Yumi's younger brother," Ulrich tried to assist. "He'll grow up and become our age; then he'll be like we are."

"That's a scary thought." Yumi muttered.

Aelita looked confused; she frowned and scratched her head. Jeremie found that the problem with Aelita's questions was that they were such basic things that it was impossible to explain them; despite how much he tried, Aelita was left with only a partial knowledge of the real world. Jeremie decided to start a little simpler.

"All humans start off as babies," he said, determined to get it right. "As they grow they get bigger and more mature and they learn things; they become children. Children grow into adolescents, like us, and then develop into adults; adults are fully grown and they don't grow any more as they get older. Does that help?"

"I think so." Aelita said slowly; Jeremie was unconvinced. "What about me?"

"Well, you were programmed by a human." Jeremie responded, "You were made like that and you haven't changed since."

"Who made me?"

"I don't know." Jeremie exchanged an uncomfortable glance with the others; he had tried his best to find out where the supercomputer had come from, with no luck.

"I see." Aelita said quietly; there was a pause before she spoke again. "But what about humans, Jeremie? Where do human babies come from? How do you make them?"

A sudden silence greeted these questions as the four of them sat completely dumbstruck. It had never occurred to Jeremie that he would have to explain that to Aelita.

"Did I say something wrong?" Aelita asked; concern clear in her voice.

"No," Jeremie said quickly, apparently the only one able to speak. "It's just difficult to answer… I think Yumi could explain it though."

Yumi looked completely alarmed as though Jeremie had just given her a ticking time-bomb. Jeremie heard Odd trying to suppress a laugh.

"Well Aelita…" Yumi began; her words halting and uncertain. "Well it all… That is to say… Excuse me; I need to go to the bathroom." She said it quickly before making a rapid exit of Jeremie's room.

"Well Einstein," Odd said, sniggering as he did so, "I guess you'll have to answer her now."

"Yeah, she did ask you after all." Ulrich put in, helpfully.

Now Jeremie felt like the one holding the bomb. His face burnt; he knew that he must have gone bright red. His stomach squirmed uncomfortably whilst Aelita was simply there looking extremely puzzled. She was completely unaware of what she had asked; Jeremie found her innocence to be one of the charming things about her. Even so, he had to find a way out of this.

"Well, I can't explain it very well." He said; his throat was dry. "But I can send you some books that will explain it properly if you like."

"Alright." Aelita said; Jeremie breathed a sigh of relief, Odd clicked his tongue in annoyance. "But I haven't finished reading what you already sent me."

"What has he sent you?" Inquired Ulrich.

"It's called 'Romeo and Juliet'." Aelita responded, smiling once more. "It's a lovely story."

"Oh really?" Said Odd; smirking. "You know, if Juliet had pink hair it would be perfect."

"Odd." Jeremie said warningly, he turned back to Aelita. "Sorry Aelita, we'd better get to breakfast. I'll speak to you later."

"Okay, see you later Jeremie, have a nice day." Aelita said pleasantly; then she was gone. This time Jeremie made sure to close the connection before putting down the headset.

"Come on, it's time for breakfast. I'm hungry." He said, pushing himself to his feet.

"Huh, whatever you say Romeo." Ulrich said casually; Odd laughed, but Jeremie was sick of those jokes.

All three of them left the dorms in high spirits; maybe today would be the day that they finally beat Xana.


End file.
